


Too Close For Comfort

by incognitotoro



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Drinking Games, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Kissing, Oral Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-04 03:02:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16338569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incognitotoro/pseuds/incognitotoro
Summary: A friendly drinking contest between the Hyperion Stooge and the Pandoran Hustler gets rather more friendly than either of them expected.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My first fic so be gentle! Constructive feedback appreciated :)

Rhys and Fiona sat opposite each other in the makeshift Helios cafeteria. It would take a few days to get everything ready for their final assault on the vault monster and faced with the prospect of waiting grimly for their possible gruesome deaths, the unlikely team had turned to drinking games. Athena and Springs had gone to bed early, leaving August, Sasha, Vaughn, Rhys and Fiona to themselves. There had been a very short lived ‘Never Have I Ever’, which had left Rhys and Vaughn horrified and the others rather drunk, a disastrous game of Rakk Ale Pong which had evened the score due to the two office workers’ terrible hand-eye coordination, and finally, after a great deal of trash talking, it had boiled down to this. Rhys and Fiona sat opposite each other for a good old fashioned drinking contest, shots of some hideous concoction of August’s laid out before them.

“Let’s go, pencil pushers.” Slurred Fiona to much jeering from Sasha and August.

“Pfft, you guys weren’t there in college,” said Vaughn, “This guy, this guy…” He gripped Rhys’ shoulders and he managed to look smug, if a little unfocussed.

“Whatever,” said Fiona, reaching behind her to take a swig of something unspeakable from the bar behind her, “That one didn’t count.” She grinned and Rhys suddenly looked ever so slightly worried.

By the third shot, Fiona had to admit she was surprised at his tolerance, they had been far from sober before and this stuff was vile. Somehow both too sweet and too bitter, she could swear she was beginning to hear her liver whimpering.  They locked eyes over the sticky table, each using the eye contact to remain at least slightly focussed. She slid her hand to the next glass, picked it up and eyed it suspiciously. Rhys mirrored her movements, they woozily clinked the glasses together, spilling probably more than necessary, and knocked them back. She screwed her face up in disgust and when she opened her eyes Rhys still had his face contorted into a grimace. She couldn’t help but giggle.

“Look at your face! It’s adorable.” She said, pouting ridiculously.

“Yeah well,” he started sluggishly, and rubbed his eyes, “your face is… it’s pretty adorable too…” She was suddenly aware of Sasha and August cooing like teenagers behind her and felt a furious blush rise in her cheeks. She forced a laugh.

“ That s’posed to be smack talk? Yet ‘nother thing Pand’rans’re better at.” She sat back smugly, overly proud she managed to get the whole sentence out without either stuttering or vomiting.

“I d’nooo,”  He managed, smirking in that – that way she hated so much that made her all enraged and flustered and- “I can think of afewww things I’m pretty good at-”

“Okaayyy!” Exclaimed Vaughn brightly, clapping his hands together “How abouts we call this a draw! We’re all verrry impressed by both of you-”

“What?” She said, too loudly, “No what? What are you so good at? Not drrrinkin’.” He just sniggered, way too amused at something she wasn’t quite getting. August sniggered too and she was vaguely aware of Sasha hissing something and smacking him on the shoulder.

“Fine by me,” said Sasha, “I’ll sleep soundly knowing we’re all AMAZING. Speaking of-” She yawned hugely.

“Oh fine. But only because I really really don’t want to keep being near this…” she gestured clumsily at the remaining glasses, “this… smell…” Rhys nodded sagely.

“Ok good. Well, I’m bushed!” said Vaughn quickly, yawning , “Night all!”

“Yup! Oh my god so tired! Come on August,”

“Well I could go for-”

“Come ON August.” Sasha growled, dragging him out by the arm.

Then, they were alone, smiling sheepishly at each other.

“Alright I actually have to get away from this stuff or ‘m gonna barf…” He stood and offered her his flesh hand solemnly. “Good game.” She took it and shook with a mock serious expression on her face.

“Indeed,” she said, putting on a posh accent which made him chuckle. Damn but his hands were soft, typical desk jockey. Still nice though. How long had they been shaking hands? Not even really shaking anymore, just holding hands… They sprung apart, apparently simultaneously aware of the prolonged physical contact. His mouth quirked up at her in a nervous smile which sent her heart fluttering. Damn alcohol. _Get your shit together, body._  

She got up clumsily and immediately regretted it. She groaned and groped for the table edge to steady herself. Couch, there was a couch right there. _Ooohh, coouuchh._ Somehow she made it to the other side of the room and she sank down ungracefully, moaning indulgently as she wiggled to get comfortable. Rhys followed suit, dropping onto the couch with such force that Fiona fell into him with an undignified squawk.

“Ha, sorry,” he said, peering down at her as she tried to right herself. _Goddamn it,_ she thought to herself, _how is he still this much taller than me even sitting down?_ She eventually settled with a huff and without thinking leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. She felt him sigh slightly, then move his metal arm out from between them to rest on the back of the sofa.

“Dunno what that stuff was, but it’s literally knocked me on my ass.” He managed.

“M’hmm,” She agreed.  They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes. Fiona felt like she should move, this was closer than they tended to get to each other and it was bound to lead to some pretty intense awkwardness, but she couldn’t bring herself to move, or even to want to move. He was just so warm, his breathing relaxed. He had shed the pretentious suit jacket hours ago and now was just in that dumb black shirt with one arm cut off, she noticed hazily that he had rolled up the other sleeve to the elbow, exposing his forearm which was less scrawny than she would have expected. Before she had a chance to talk herself out of it, she had reached over and gently poked his arm.

“Huh?”

“I thought you’d be scrawnier.”

“I uh, I don’t know how to respond to that.” She chanced a look at his face and saw with some delight that he was blushing. Something in the back of her mind was jostling for her attention, but she was just too comfy here on the sofa and her brain felt like it was full of cotton wool. In like, a good way.

“Whatever, take a compliment jeez.”

“That was a _compliment?”_

“Sure!” She said, apparently unconvincingly, because he shook his head disbelievingly.

“Pandorans, man.”

“If you hate us so much _why_ d’you keep coming back? I mean, apart from our superior liquor. Obviously.” She gestured towards the abandoned shots.

“Oof, don’t remind me. Guess you’ve just uh, grown on me.” He was looking at her with such softness she was momentarily taken aback. “I mean,” he blustered, flushing, “I –uh – fuck it. I missed you – _all of you_ – and uh…” She sighed and patted his shoulder.

“Alright calm down, don’t burst a vessel.” He was so warm. And he smelt nice. _Why am I thinking this. WTF brain. Oh well. Too late._ She supposed the vast majority of the time they had spent together had been in basically mortal peril of various types and so it had never occurred to her to pay attention to how he smelt. Possibly out of some deep seated sense of self preservation. Yeah, that was it. Just normal, not covered in sweat, dirt and gore smell. Not nice, just normal smell. OK this was entirely too much time devoted to Rhys’ _scent_. Ew.

“Are, are you OK?” His voice snapped her out of her weird train of thought.

“Huh?”

“Well you breathed in really deep and then frowned a lot and then just sort of stared into the middle distance for ages. It was pretty weird.” She gave him a look. “Whatever Fi, no judgement, you were just like, concentrating so hard, it was kinda adorable.”

“Uh, _adorable?_ ” Her drunken brain was unsure how to process this and so reverted back to default. When in doubt, insult. “God you’re such a weirdo.”

“I’m a weirdo?” He stammered, blushing furiously now. “You said _my_ face was adorable like, 10 minutes ago! Which, I mean, it is so, fair enough.”

“What? No I absolutely did not.” She was doubling down on the outrage now, she could feel herself being overly well spoken enunciating way too much.

“You absolutely did!” He looked really amused now. Shit, she was losing control of the situation. She realised this but did not have the brain power to do anything about it.

“Well, maybe. But I barely remember that, which makes you remembering it weird.” He smirked infuriatingly at that.

“Whatever you say, Fi.”  

They settled back into a slightly less comfortable silence. Fiona was way out of her comfort zone now, she felt like there was something really obvious that she was missing , but it kept flitting away like the memory of a dream. In any case, she was still way too physically comfortable to actually do anything other than sit here with Rhys. Who smelled nice and was absurdly warm and actually had quite nice forearms. Forearm. She heard a quiet thump and glanced up to see he had tilted his head back until it had hit the wall behind them, closing his eyes. She couldn’t help herself as her eyes roved over his stretched neck, collarbones, the tendrils of blue tattoos reaching up from inside the shirt that was really way to low to be appropriate for any business, I mean seriously.

“Fi?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you staring at me? I feel like I can feel it.”

“Just checking you’re not dead genius.”

“Nah, just really comfy.”

“I know right?”

“Mmm,” he grunted, relaxing slightly.

She smiled to herself, a secret little smile that she wasn’t sure where it came from. Not the time, she decided. So damn sleepy. If only those bastard lights weren’t there. As soon as she thought of it, they went off, startling her.

“Holy shit!” Did she do that? Rhys chuckled beside her.

“Sorry, they were just so goddamn bright.” She relaxed slightly. “Magic of technology right?” Of course, the ECHO eye.

“Asshole.” She said, but without malice. Not enough energy for malice. She settled back against him. _Just close my eyes for a bit…_ She thought thickly.  They sat like that for who knows how long, Fiona’s mind drifting dreamily but not falling asleep. She was getting closer to that thing she was so close to figuring out earlier. She had pretty much forgotten everything outside her brain when she was startled half awake by an almighty snort disturbingly close to her head.

“Wha?” She managed, trying to find the source of the noise as her eyes adjusted to the low light.

“Whassat…” Came a familiar voice from above her. She tilted her head towards him in the darkness and recoiled slightly when she banged into his head.

“Shit, sorry,”

“S’fine.” His hand felt around in the darkness to get his bearings and found her shoulder, moved up to her face, inches from his. Everything seemed very still all of a sudden. They were so close she could feel his breath. He gently moved his thumb down her cheek to the corner of her mouth. She exhaled a breath she hadn’t realised she had been holding. She turned her face towards his hand, it was so soft…

“Fi,” He breathed, voice rough from sleep.

Suddenly, whatever spell was on her was broken. Hearing her name had reminded her of the thing she had been trying to get at for hours. He called her Fi. He was Rhys. RHYS. Rhys was cupping her face tenderly in his hand. She was snuggled up against _RHYS._ Nope. She was _enjoying_ being snuggled up to Rhys. Nope nope nope. Abort. _Abort._

She was up before she could think anymore about it. Head spinning be damned.

“Should go to bed. My bed. I mean. I mean _alone!_ Shit…”

“Wait, Fi,”

“Night!”

She barrelled down the unfamiliar hallways like a bowling ball bouncing off the sides.  Thank god whatever muscle memory she had about this awful corporate shell appeared to be working, because she ended up eventually in her room. _Bed. Thank god. Mess is future Fiona’s problem._

“I love you, bed…” she murmured into the pillow before drifting off to a troubled sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Several hours later, future Fiona was not happy. Her head felt like an overripe drakefruit and she had a nagging feeling that something was very wrong. This was not necessarily an unfamiliar feeling after a night of heavy drinking, but it never stopped being disconcerting. _Please oh please let there be water in here…_ She forced her eyes open. They made a sticky noise. Uuugghh. Her room, her bed. Good start. No water. Shit. She had to leave the room. That meant moving. Moving is the worst. She lay in bed for a while longer, hating life, until the discomfort of moving was lesser than the discomfort of the gross, sticky feeling in her mouth. As she got up, she realised she had slept in her clothes. She cast around the mess that was her room for something to throw on and settled on a wrinkled pair of leggings and a big t-shirt. Her hair still looked like a skag pup sitting on her head but right now her need for water and probably coffee – _coffee –_ was greater than her shame.

She got to the cafeteria feeling as if she had run a marathon and poured herself a big glass of water. When she had finished downing it she busied herself making coffee, until she turned around and noticed the bundle of lanky limbs and hair gel sprawled on the comically undersized sofa. She froze, mug in hand, and _remembered_. There were the empty glasses, the foul shots sitting abandoned on the table, the cyber idiot, who, just hour ago was cupping her face so gently… _Thumb ghosting across to her lips, just shy of touching them, face so close they were breathing the same air, he whispered her name and-_

He let out a truly hideous snore, effectively putting an end to Fiona’s daydream. To her immense relief he didn’t wake up, and she managed to escape back to her room with her coffee, where she could continue this nightmare in private.

Ok, time to be serious. What could she remember?

 _Drinks, shit-talking, more drinks, waggling eyebrows, sofa, arms, nice arms, shirt sleeves rolled up- focus!_ Why was she blushing? Desperately, she tried harder to remember. Well, he was still dressed just now at least, so nothing too crazy can have happened… _And that’s what it would be,_  she reminded her burning cheeks, _CRAZY. Absolute madness. And not in a good way…_ _But… Resting on his chest, so warm and comfortable, then startled awake and- and…_  And then she had ran away,  retreating to her room in a confused stupor, the memory of his touch still tingling at her lips.

 _Oh thank god._ Nothing, nothing except for slightly more physical contact than usual. Yup. That was it. Good. She tried to feel relieved. Why didn’t she feel relieved? This was more like… excitement? A combination of disappointment and giddiness?

She sipped at her coffee, frowning. This was Rhys. RHYS. The only reason that anything almost happened it that she was rudely awoken by his frankly inhuman snoring. That moron who, just a few days ago, forgot during a game of poker that his ECHO eye glows when he uses it. Of course Fiona and Sasha were obviously cheating as well but if you’re going to cheat, you should at least have the courtesy to be good at it…

                There was a knock at the door and Sasha entered before waiting for a reply.

                “Jeez, Sash, I could be naked or something in here.”

                “So, how are _you_ feeling this beautiful morning?” She said smugly, ignoring Fiona’s protest.

                “Peachy.” She growled, “Not at all like my head is a firemelon.” Sasha snorted.

                “Not surprising considering what you and Rhys were drinking is illegal on most civilised planets.”

                “Urgh. Tell August he’s firmly on my shit-list.”

                “He wasn’t already?”

                “Well, yeah, but I haven’t specifically told him yet.”

                “Uhuh,” Sasha smirked “So…”

                “So…?”

                “Anything… interesting happen after we went to bed?” She asked innocently. Fiona narrowed her eyes at her sister.

                “Apart from my liver throwing in the towel you mean?”

                “Sure, apart from that.”

                “Nope.”

                “Uhuh.” Sasha was looking far to amused for her liking.

                “What did you expect? A chorus of trained skags to come and start tap dancing?”

                “Ha, no. Maybe something a little… closer to home?” She said, raising her eyebrows suggestively. Fiona pinched the bridge of her nose.

                “Sash, have some pity on my sad, hungover brain and stop being so goddamn coy.”  She rolled her eyes in irritation.

                “Fine, you’re no fun. Rhys! Jeez Fi, when we left last night you could cut the sexual tension with a knife!” Fiona spluttered into her coffee.

                “What!?”

                “With a KNIFE, Fi. What happened?”

                “Ugh, nothing happened. What is it with you and my love life? It’s like I’m 16 again.”

                “So you admit it.” She said smugly. “It is like you’re 16! This is Zach all over again!”

                “Zach was- Shut up. I’m not 16 and this is nothing like that.” To her horror, she blushed. She hadn’t thought about Zach in an age. First kiss in an abandoned moonshot container, after weeks of dancing around each other. She had heard a while ago he died a few years back trying to train skags using hypnosis. He never was the smartest guy… Great kisser though…

                “Whatever you say, sis.”

                “Oh don’t get that look. You haven’t figured anything out.”

                “Sure!”

                “We were both blasted anyway, so it didn’t- _wouldn’t count.”_ Shit.  

                “It didn’t count?” She exclaimed giddily, “ _What_ didn’t count?” Fiona groaned, defeated.

                “Ugh, _nothing happened_. It was just… close… for a second there…” _Don’t smile. Don’t… smile…_

                “Oh my god you’re smiling!”

                “I am not!” She scowled her meanest ‘I-faced-down-a-giant-rakk-hive-and-lived’ scowl, but Sasha was entirely unperturbed.

                “You guys are so utterly hopeless. Honestly Fi, I never thought I would say this, but you as much of a moron as Rhys. Let that sink in.”

                “Alright, if you’re done ranting, I’m going to just – crawl into a hole and die…”

                Sasha chuckled and left, shooting her a self-satisfied look on her way out.

                Fiona groaned loudly, throwing herself face down onto the bed in frustration. Trust Sasha to storm in here demanding answers about feelings Fiona hadn’t even acknowledged to herself yet. Let alone her sister or god forbid, Rhys.

                Ugh. Rhys. With his dumb face and his dumb hair that she _definitely_ didn’t want to run her hands through…  Nope, getting off topic. Dumb robot arm, dumb stuttering and general  staggering incompetence. Still though, she had to admit that boy could drink. And she did greatly enjoy antagonizing him, although lately it had begun to feel more like playful sparring than bullying. She would have been far more comfortable with the latter.

 _OK. I guess this is happening. I guess I’m acknowledging… my-ugh- feelings. There. Done._ She groaned again.

                “I need a drink…”  


	3. Chapter 3

Fortunately for Fiona, the day’s work was fairly low effort and thankfully did not require a great deal of mixing with the others. She had got dressed, throwing on a spare shirt over her leggings, her boots and of course, her hat, if nothing else it helped her put some mental distance between herself and last night’s poor life choices. If she concentrated she could still taste those shots. Eurgh.  Feeling much better with her coffee and clean clothes, she said a few words to Vaughn about the tasks for the day- mostly just testing systems and making sure they weren’t killed prematurely by a malfunctioning garbage chute- and retreated into the bowels of the abandoned station. She really wasn’t in the moods for socialising.

She managed to go past lunchtime without running into anyone, just tinkering away with her pistol in a corner of an abandoned lab. She was far from an expert at, well anything really, beyond fast-talking and general Pandoran survival, but she had got to know the little sleeve pistol very well over time. She hated to admit that Felix had got something right, but it suited her. She was about to start oiling the telescopic mechanism, _definitely not avoiding getting lunch and therefore dealing with Sasha and Vaughn and – oh god if she had had that conversation with Sasha this morning, what on earth had Vaughn and Rhys talked about?_ Like she didn’t already know. There was a soft knock at the door and she froze. Before she had a chance to do anything though, the door opened and Rhys poked his head around the door, looking thoroughly uneasy.

Fiona put all of her remaining brain power, into not looking startled. She was more than a little proud that she didn’t even move her feet from where they were rested on a second chair. _See? It’ll be fine, just play it cool… he probably doesn’t even remember anything, and if he does, it doesn’t matter because NOTHING EVEN HAPPENED. Oh god I really am 16._ She realised he hadn’t said anything either while her inner monologue had been worrying away, so she raised a sardonic eyebrow.

“Uh, hi.” He managed.

“Hi, Rhys, you need something?”

“No, it’s just, Vaughn said to tell you they’re gonna have lunch soon, so if you want…?” He trailed off, clearly very uncomfortable. Fiona was suddenly incredibly bored of all this stupid teenager dynamic. She had probably killed off a load of brain cells last night and the ones which had escaped death by apparently illegal alcohol had no time for this shit.

“Vaughn sent you did he.”It wasn’t a question, and she raised her eyebrow again. “Sasha and August were busy, were they?”  She almost felt bad at torturing him when she saw panic flit across his face, almost.

“I don’t know, I mean maybe? Vaughn and I were talking and he said about lunch and-”

“Talking about anything interesting?”  He flushed scarlet and she rolled her eyes. “Fine, fine I take pity on you. So what, Vaughn cornered you and interrogated you about last night?”

“Uh…”

“Sasha did the same to me.” He visibly relaxed, now looking only a little anxious.

“She did?”

“Yeah, typical her. Wanted to know just _everything_.”

“Haha,” he laughed nervously, “Yeah, Vaughn too. Nothing to tell though, right?” He looked right at her suddenly, having been skittishly avoiding eye contact for the rest of their conversation, and Fiona realised her heart was hammering. What was that look on his face? It seemed familiar, although really no human person should have the ability to contort their face into such shapes.

“Right.”  She said, and he nodded, somewhat sadly.

She realised with a start that the look on his face had been what she had been feeling a few hours ago, that odd mix of anticipated disappointment and giddy hope. Her stomach did a somersault. She hadn’t even considered what to do if he felt the same; she had only just managed to admit to herself that her feelings even existed! This was far too much information to process, especially since she was a long way from 100%. She pinched the bridge of her nose in an attempt to focus.

“Well,” He rubbed the back of his neck, “Guess I’ll go get some food. Join us if you want.” He smiled at her sheepishly and turned to leave.

“Wait!” He turned back quizzically, “I’m- going to come get some lunch.” _Coward._

“Oh,”

“Yup. Lunch.” She said, mostly to herself.

“Cool,”

“Yup.” _Done with all the teenager shit, huh?_ Said a snide little voice in the mind. Before she had a chance to ponder it though, just as they both stepped out of the lab, the corridor was suddenly lit up with ominous red lighting and alarms blared.

They exchanged a worried look, but before they could react, all the sprinklers in the corridor activated, spewing a torrent of freezing water down the hall.  They both jumped back into the lab instinctively before they got absolutely drenched. 

“What the hell-”

The lab door slammed shut a second after they were inside, and a smug synthetic voice lilted through the speaker system.

“ _Please remain calm, emergency safety measures are in effect. All fire doors have been sealed. Hyperion emergency personnel have been dispatched to deal with the issue._ ”

“What the hell?” Fiona yelled. Rhys was already on his palm interface trying to get a hold of Vaughn.

“What the hell, Vaughn?”

“Uuuhh I’m so sorry!” Came Vaughn’s panicky voice, crackly over the ECHOcom. “I’ve been fiddling with the emergency systems in case we set something on fire during the fight or whatever and I guess I tripped some switch and now it thinks there’s a fire… I’m fixing it! Where are you anyway?”

“I’m uh, with Fiona in one of the labs.” He said reluctantly. “The fire doors have all sealed.”

“Ok- _OH­_. OK then,” and she could swear she could _hear_ him winking.

“Vaughn, I swear to god,” She growled, yanking Rhys’ robot arm towards her so she could glare at the display, “If you did this on purpose-”

“I didn’t, I swear!”

“He _was_ talking about checking the emergency systems this morning,” Offered Rhys.

“Alright fine, but just- just fix it Vaughn or I swear I will come down there and break your tiny, weirdly muscly body.”

“Yes ma’am.” He said, saluting the camera awkwardly, “Might take a while, but I will- I will fix this…” She released Rhys’ arm and stalked back over to her corner , putting her feet back up on the desk and taking a deep breath. Rhys continued to mutter furiously into his palm like a madman for a few moments, then sighed and sat heavily in a vacant office chair.  

“Y’OK there buddy?”

“Yeah, fine,” he said wearily, tilting his head back and closing his eyes, reminding Fiona for a second of last night, curled on the sofa together. “I just, really could have done without this crap today.”

“Ugh, tell me about it.”

There were a few minutes of silence, in which Fiona got increasingly fidgety, until she couldn’t bear it.

“Alright fine, let’s address the Bullymong in the room-”

“What the hell is- never mind I don’t want to know.”

“Probably not,” she grinned. “But come on, out with it, what do you remember?” His face cycled through several impossible expressions before settling on a sort of, bewildered uneasiness. Damn it but he was adorable when he was completely out of his depth.

“Do you-” he swallowed, “Do you not remember?” She forced a laugh, trying not to feel like she was on a precipice of something she couldn’t quite name.

“I asked you first.”

“Fine, if you’re gonna be _immature_ about it.”

“I don’t know if either of us gets to be _mature_ about it after voluntarily drinking that stuff.” She said as he dragged the wheely chair over to her, putting his feet up next to hers on the desk peering at her from the other side.

“Alright, I guess we’re doing this.”

“Yup.”

“Alright,”

“Alright.”

“Well, I guess it started with- _ugh_ \- whatever August gave us, there were lots of those, way too many of those, and then there was some dumb shit talking.” He hesitated and coloured slightly, as if suddenly remembering something. “And then everyone went to bed and we were on the sofa,”

He paused and she gestured for him to continue, taking a little pleasure in watching him get flustered, after all, why should it just be her? He seemed to have got a hold of himself though, to her slight disappointment.

“And, well, we were chatting, and it was really comfortable, and I think I may have-“ he gulped “Saidthatyouwereadorable.”

“Rings a bell.” She said, amused. He looked relieved and continued.

“Well, we uh, we chatted and I felt like I should go to bed but it was so comfy and nice, so I just turned off the lights and we went to sleep.”

“Until I was rudely awoken by your frankly inhuman snoring.”

“What? Until _I_ was rudely awoken by your headbutting!”

“You gave me a start! I thought someone was chainsawing something. On Pandora hearing a chainsaw near your face is cause for concern.”

“Oh great, thanks.” He said dryly. “Good to know I inspire such _concern_ in people.”

“You’re welcome.” She said brightly. He snorted in response and got up to make his way over to a water cooler which by some miracle had survived crashing into a planet from orbit. They didn’t say anything for a few minutes, while he struggled with the water cooler, which was apparently not as intact as it looked.

“Have you tried kicking it?” She said, getting up

“More Pandoran pearls of wisdom?” He huffed. “Why don’t you try yelling ‘enhance’ at it?”

She rolled her eyes at him and gestured him to step aside, which he did with a sarcastic, “Be my guest.” She kicked it. Nothing happened. She kicked it again and to Rhys’ obvious disbelief (and honestly, to her surprise too) it started trickling water into the sad plastic cup. Rhys shook his head.

“You make no sense.” He said in a slightly dazed voice.

“It’s natural to be impressed.” She said, looking up at him. She realised they were standing very close. How was he this tall? And he smelt nice again. God she wished she would stop noticing that.

“I am,” He said quietly, still looking at her with a look in his eyes which genuinely froze her to the spot for a second. He cleared his throat. “So,”

“So,” They were still standing so close…

“So you woke me up and I had no idea what was going on so I –uh, I tried to get my bearings in the dark and I-” She felt rather than saw his hand move hesitantly upwards. For some reason she felt rooted to the spot, lost in the intensity of his gaze. There was pure vulnerability in his eyes, laced with a bit of terror and just enough determination for him to move his hand that extra centimetre to cup her cheek. So gently she almost didn’t feel it, he moved his thumb over her face. Instinctively, she turned her face into his palm again, like she had done in the haze of last night. She wouldn’t run this time though; she was lost in this moment, somehow both impossibly tense and impossibly relieved. _Fuck it._ She kissed his hand. _No going back now._ He sighed, and she chanced a sideways look at him. His eyes were closed and there was an expression of utter concentration on his face, as if he was having a very diverting dream. She couldn’t help but smile into his palm.

She turned towards him again at the same time he opened his eyes and before she could talk herself out of it, she stood on tiptoes and finally brushed her lips against his. It was so very gentle but she felt as if all her nerves were tingling in a corona that radiated out from her lips. They stayed like that for a second, until she felt Rhys sigh quietly. The noise sent a bolt of pure _want_ through her and without thinking; she deepened the kiss and fell over the precipice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *It's happening!*


	4. Chapter 4

It was several seconds before Fiona realised what she was doing. Which was kissing. Kissing Rhys. And far more surprising, _enjoying_ it. For a tiny moment she was entirely, devastatingly aware of the situation and then she was lost again.

Their lips brushed together slowly, again and again. Soft and searching and oh so warm. His hand cupping her cheek and moving up to card his fingers through her hair. She felt him smile against her lips as her hat tumbled to the floor and smiled back, linking her hands behind his neck. He placed his other hand on the small of her back, pulling her closer and nipping at her lip, she moaned softly, parting her lips just enough for him to slip his tongue between them. She followed suit, pressing herself closer and running her tongue over his bottom lip. He moaned and fisted his hand in her hair.

How long since she had been kissed like this? Years certainly. Hell, it had been years since she had been kissed at all. This though, this was… and he was far better at this than she would have guessed. She was perfectly content to lose herself in sensation. The feeling of his lips on hers, their bodies pressed together up against the wall. She could feel his moans and sighs deep in his chest before she heard them, and when they finally broke apart after what felt like an eternity she was left utterly dazed. Apparently Rhys felt the same because she felt him slump slightly against the wall.

They stood like that for a few minutes, catching their breath until Fiona pulled back slightly to look up at him. They smiled at each other for a second, before reluctantly pulling apart. She perched herself on the nearest desk and regarded him carefully as he manoeuvred himself a little awkwardly into the nearest chair.

“So, uh, why again haven’t we been doing that the whole time?” He asked, smirking.

“Well, I guess it’s only very recently I’ve decided you’re not a complete asshole. That probably is one reason.” She said, although not very convincingly since she couldn’t stop smiling like an idiot.

“Oof,” He said, clutching his chest, “That hurts, Fi.” She shrugged.

“That and I don’t know how we would have got anything done before.” She absentmindedly tucked her hair behind her ear. “That was… distracting.”

“I’ve gotta say, I prefer that explanation. Distracting is right…”  She murmured in agreement, eyeing him curiously as he fiddled with his cuff. She felt a small sense of liberation as she realised that she could just look at him now, with no one else watching her, trying to push them together or trying to find some hidden meaning in her words, and she had to admit she felt calmer than before. After all, the cat was out of the bag now, at least between the two of them, and it would be pretty hard to back-peddle from a kiss like _that._ He was still absorbed with fiddling with his shirt as if the meaning of life was written on it, so she took an indulgent few seconds just to look. He really was unfairly good-looking, (though she made a mental note not to tell him that, his ego certainly didn’t need it). Her eyes were drawn to the pale tattoos disappearing under his shirt and she found herself suddenly very much wanting to know what the rest of them looked like…

“What?” he said, jerking her out of her stupor. Yup, she was defiantly staring.

“Nothing,” she said quickly, “What are you doing anyway?”

“I- nothing.” She gave him a look. “I was – pinchingmyself…” he said the last words very quietly.

“What.” She said flatly, and shook her head, unable to stop the grin from spreading across her face.

“Don’t laugh!”

“I’m not!” She was.

“Oh sure…”

“I just- It’s, that’s-” She took a deep breath before she started giggling uncontrollably. “That’s like, painfully adorable. Like, _excruciatingly._ ”

“Alright, alright,” there was the ghost of a smile at the corner of his mouth now.

“It physically hurts me, Rhys.”

“No need to be so mean, you weren’t complaining a few minutes ago.” He shot her a wicked look which made her equal parts annoyed, flustered and… well. 

Then, as if by divine providence to deliver her from having to think of a reply to that, the fire door opened and the sprinklers outside trickled off.  They looked at each other briefly, then at the door, then Rhys’ palm interface beeped.

“Vaughn? Are we good to go?”

“Yup, I’m pretty sure I’ve got a handle on it now, although August and Sasha are NOT happy with me, seems they got caught in one of the corridors with the malfunctioning sprinklers...”

“Yikes, I do not envy you bro.”

“Yeeahhh, you think I should arm myself just in case?”

“Probably safe to just barricade yourself in there for the time being.”

“Yeah, I’ll get right on that,”

“Good luck, buddy.”

“See ya later.”

The interface shut off and they were left alone again. Rhys rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

“So…”

“So,” she said slowly, “this is what’s going to happen;”

“OK…” he said nervously.

“OK. We are going to get some lunch, like normal adult people and we are going to say nothing to anyone.”  He looked crestfallen, but she raised her hand and continued. “Not yet, I don’t think I can face the smugness.” He nodded at that a tiny smile beginning at the corner of his mouth. “We are going to go about our day normally and go to bed when the others do-unless they want to drink more. Then they can go to hell. Then,” she inhaled tensely, was she really doing this? Guess so. “Then, we are going to meet in one of the rooms we don’t use, just in case, away from all the smugness, and we are going to… deal. With this. We’re going to deal with this shit.” And she had started off so well… He smirked infuriatingly.

“You know, Fi, for a con-artist, you are really not very smooth.”

“Oh alright Mr smooth talker. Show me how it’s done then!” Oops, she was pretty sure that came out wrong… He was smirking still. Yup, definitely came out wrong.

He poked his head out of the door and glanced quickly down the corridor, then without warning, grabbed her and pushed her up against the wall, one hand gripping her hip, the other behind her head, stopping it from banging the wall. His mouth crashed onto hers, all tongue and teeth and delicious urgency, and she swore that every thought in her head ground to a shuddering halt for a glorious 10 seconds. Then it was over, and he was pulling away, looking every inch the cat that got the cream. He swiped a thumb across his bottom lip, exhaled heavily and _winked._

“See you tonight. Meet you back here?”

“I-uh, sure-” _Words dammit!_ But it was too late, he had nodded and left before she had a chance to get her brain back in gear. She raised her hand dazedly to her lips, sure that she could still feel the kiss burning there. The _second_ kiss. Before she had a chance to obsess any more however, his dumb face appeared at the door frame.

“That’s how it’s done.”

“Get out of here, you ruined it.”

“Oh, OK, well, still tonight?”

“Yes you colossal moron.”

“Ok, great.” He grinned and disappeared again.

She shook her head and couldn’t help herself from smiling widely.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Smut incoming! (Finally)
> 
> This chapter is NFSW.

The rest of the day was a write-off for Fiona; her head was spinning with anticipation for whatever this evening would hold. She still couldn’t quite believe that in the space of less than 24 hours, she had gone from being sick with horror at the thought of accidentally drunkenly fooling around with Rhys, to being so excited about meeting him this evening that she kept having to stop herself grinning like a kid with a secret. The two of them had locked eyes a few times over dinner and it had felt as if a neon sign had appeared over their heads saying * _THEY KISSED!*_ In massive flashing letters.

Thankfully, Sasha and August hadn’t been as lucky as them in avoiding the sprinklers during the accidental ‘emergency’, were both thoroughly tetchy and so were not paying attention to whatever was going on between Rhys and Fiona. Similarly, Vaughn had been avoiding all of them for most of the day, presumably in an attempt to avoid Sasha’s wrath. So when it finally came time to turn in for the night, Fiona was actually reasonably confident that this mad plan may actually work. She said goodnight to Sasha and sat on her bed for half an hour after getting changed into some less ‘worked in’ clothes, oddly restless. Finally, when she was pretty sure everyone would be in their rooms until morning, she crept out, heart hammering, and made her way to the abandoned lab from this morning.

When she got there she situated herself with forced casualness on another wheely chair. Within 30 seconds she was obsessing over every possible facet of the situation. _What if he doesn’t come? What if we get CAUGHT? What was I even thinking? About that kiss. That’s what I was thinking. Wait, two kisses now…_

Fortunately, before too long Rhys _did_ turn up and put an end to her frantic ruminations. He poked his head around the door frame uncertainly, his face breaking into an expression of supreme relief when he realised she was already here. She couldn’t help but feel the same way. Why was this so nerve-wracking anyway? They had face death and worse together dozens of times, yet here she was, all nervous and unsure of herself.

“Hi,”

“Hi.”

“Shall we?” he said, gesturing out the door.

“Yes please,” she said gratefully, “I really don’t want to spend another second in this damn lab.”

“The feeling’s mutual,” he chuckled, “Although I can’t say I don’t have some pretty fantastic memories from there.”

“True,” she said, smiling back at him, “So where are we going?”

“There’s a load of quarters around the other side of this lab block. At least I’m pretty sure there are, but there should at least be a break room or something.”

They walked for a few minutes together, through a maze of ex-corporate corridors, and eventually got to a line of locked doors. Rhys brought up his palm interface again, did some weird _hacky_ stuff, and the door opened, leaving Rhys looking extremely pleased with himself.

The room was an old office, but far nicer than the rooms they had been using, which they had just picked out of convenience based on location. Apart from the loose furniture being askew (it had survived planetary impact, after all), it was mostly intact, most of the furniture was apparently nailed down, and It had obviously been sealed until very recently, so it had been spared the fire damage obvious in most of the station. She wondered how many of these quarters were hiding in the wrecked space station, even in this state of disarray, it was true luxury compared to most of Pandora.

“So what do you think?”

“If I didn’t know better, Hyperion, I’d think you were trying to impress me.” He smirked at that.

“Maybe, just a little. I had a quick look at the database to see if there were any decent quarters still intact.”

“Hmm,” He had taken another step closer.

“So…”

“So?”

“So what now?”

“Now…” She closed the distance between them, linking her hands around his neck. “Now, you tell me how long you’ve wanted to do this.” He gulped and now it was her turn to smirk.

“Uh,” his eyes were dark and she had the impression he was very carefully controlling himself. _That won’t last long…_ she thought, and was surprised by how normal the thought felt. “I uh- I’ve pretty much wanted to kiss you since- pretty much since the beginning if I’m honest.”

“Well aren’t you patient,”

“No.” And then they were kissing. Soft and slow, but not precisely gentle. She sighed against his mouth, parting her lips to allow his tongue to slide against hers. Her hand was in his hair, the other grasping his back and she realised hazily that although she would never admit it, Sasha was right. They were morons.

One hand grasped her lower back, pulling her ever closer, and the other reached down to cup her ass, Rhys hissed against her mouth. She pulled away from him for a second, eliciting a disappointed whine which turned into a low growl when she moved to his neck, gently tracing the lines of his tattoo with her tongue.

“God, Fi…” His tone was reverential and slightly desperate, and his grip tightened spasmodically when she nipped at his jaw.

Without warning, he grabbed her by the hips and hoisted her up, capturing her mouth again and moving to press her up against a wall. Fiona wound her legs around his waist, gasping at the sudden delicious pressure between her legs as he responded by thrusting slightly upwards. He moved one hand from her ass, using his weight to pin her against the wall, and buried it in her hair, once again toppling her hat to the floor. For once in her life, she didn’t care.

He ground against her with increasing urgency, and she canted her hips in response, feeling his hardness against her. They groaned together, stopping kissing long enough to pull apart and look into each other’s eyes. Rhys’  brown eye was dark with arousal, his lips swollen and red.

“So, you like me huh?” she managed, breathlessly. He let out a short, disbelieving laugh and tilted his head to kiss her neck, which made her gasp and squirm.

“So much…would’ve thought that much was obvious.” He pressed himself firmly against her to illustrate his point. “Seems like you like me too.”

“I mean, I hate to admit it but- ah!” He bit her neck, sucking for a second. “Hey! Shit that’s gonna leave a mark.”

“You care?”

“Yes!” That was true, but she couldn’t deny the jolt of pleasure it had caused. She suspected that was obvious from her face and the noise she had made, given how Rhys was grinning evilly.

“Well,” he moved back to her neck, so she could feel his breath in her ear. “Gotta get you to admit it somehow.”  He bit the same spot again, licking it afterwards, and this time she _melted_.

“God, fine, I like you. Oh…”

“Good.” He kissed her quickly on the lips and picked her up again. He carried her to the couch -which was at least twice the size of the one in the cafeteria- and placed her down gently, displaying physical prowess which would have been _real_ useful in many of the life threatening situations they had found themselves in… 

She put her hands round his neck, this time slipping under his collar to finally _touch_ him. He untucked her shirt and slipped a hand under it to rest on her bare hip. She pulled him down to her, desperate to be closer, and kissing him the whole time, began to unbutton his shirt from the top.  As if he had been given permission, he started unbuttoning hers from the bottom, his knuckles grazing her bare skin with each one. She pushed his shirt over his shoulders and finally ran her hands over his chest, taking him in for a second while he undid the last clasp at her neck. Once again, she was struck by how scrawny he wasn’t, skinny sure, but apparently all that running around Pandora had done him some good, there was definitely more muscle there than your standard desk job. Except Vaughn of course. She reached up and traced the blue of his tattoos with a finger, watching as his eyes flickered shut in contentment. Her shirt slipped down her shoulders with a shrug and she was glad she had thought to put on the _nice_ bra. Impractical as all hell out in the wastes, but damn, she looked good in it. Apparently Rhys thought so too, because he let out a strangled moan which, if the situation had been _very_ different, she would have mocked him mercilessly for. As it was, she smiled crookedly.

“I’ve gotta say,” she purred, “I’ve wanted to see the rest of those tattoos for a long while.” She pushed him back before he had a chance to respond, threw a leg over him and settled in his lap, hands resting on his shoulders. She leant down and started kissing his chest. His flesh hand ghosted up her side, making her shiver slightly, while the metal one gripped her hip, he shuddered a little with each kiss she planted on his heated skin.  His hand wound up her back, pausing at her bra strap.

“Can I…?” She pulled back and nodded, holding his eye contact, suddenly needing to savour the moment. He undid the clasp with surprising ease (why had she always just assumed that he would be godawful at this stuff?) and she shrugged off the bra. It was a strangely quiet moment; the two of them shirtless for each other, just taking a moment to take everything in.

“Holy shit, Fi…” And the reverie was broken. He stroked his hands up her sides, one warm and one cold, making her shiver again, and moved forwards to kiss her breast. His touch was whisper light as he kissed along her cleavage, moving a hand to cup her breast as he kissed her neck. He pulled back for a second to watch her face as he ever so gently rubbed her nipple with his thumb. She sighed, closing her eyes, and was taken by surprise when his other hand moved down to cup her crotch. She cried out, too loud in her shock at the sheer intensity of the feeling, and he muffled her cry by kissing her again, beginning to rub slowly. Chasing the pleasure, she began rolling her hips against his hand, lost in sensation.

He moaned with her, spurred on by every little noise she made, and eventually she had the presence of mind to reach down and return the favour. The noise he made when she cupped his cock was somewhere between a whimper and a growl and Fiona smiled widely, pleased with the reaction she had got. Deliberately slowly, she started to unbutton his pants, watching his eyes flutter closed in ecstasy. She paused when she got to his boxers (where did he even get half-striped underwear?), as much for dramatic effect as anything else.

“Don’t stop…” he whispered, so she, being uncooperative to her very core, slid a finger just inside the waistband, pulled back and pinged the elastic.

“So impatient…” she teased. That was an understatement apparently, because he grabbed her and flipped them around, pushing her down on her back to the couch. Pants still flapping open, she shoved his knee between her legs, forcing them open and earning another gasp from Fiona in the process. Fiona’s lust clouded brain hadn’t even seen it coming, and here she was pinned on her back, Rhys frantically fumbling with her pants now. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to regret it, not with the increasing waves of arousal hitting her with every move he made.

As he finally got her trousers open, he leaned down, keeping eye contact the whole time, until he got to her belly, and planted a kiss below her belly button. He moved lower still, pausing infuriatingly at her panties. He looked up at her mischievously, and pinged the elastic on her panties with his teeth. Fiona thought she had never been so turned on.

“You are a monster…” she gasped, causing him to chuckle, the vibrations making her shudder. Then he finally leaned down and kissed her through the thin material, adding to the wetness that had been growing there. He sighed jaggedly and began to slowly work his way down with his tongue, while he hooked his thumbs over her pants’ waistband, tugging gently. She began to shimmy out of them, every movement causing more wonderful friction. When she was finally free of them, she dragged him back up to her, crashing her mouth onto his and shoving her hand into his boxers without ceremony.  He moaned deeply into her mouth, carnal and rough as he thrust upwards into her hand, completely hard. With her other hand she shoved at his pants, and in a frantic rush of movement, they finally shed the last of their clothes and were naked before each other.

Rhys pulled back suddenly, wanting to take her in fully, he stared for a second, open mouthed, and Fiona looked back at him, drinking in the sight of him, fully naked now, lean frame taught with arousal. His mismatched eyes roved over her body, pausing at her breasts, her waist and her pussy. She grinned and shifted slightly to give him a better view.

“Holy sh-” He didn’t even finish the sentence, leaning down instantly to drag his tongue slowly up her slit to place an indulgent, open mouthed kiss on her clit, making a satisfied groan as he did. The vibrations added to the impossible pleasure, and Fiona _moaned,_ her hands scrabbling for something to grip. He continued, torturously slowly, and she felt him smile against her when she thrust a hand roughly into his tousled hair. She was mewling now, getting less and less coherent with each stroke of his tongue.

She was getting lost in the pleasure, the pressure building between her legs. His metal hand was stroking gently up the inside of her thigh, its coolness sending shivery frissons through her body. She barely had the presence of mind to pull him back up to her making him pout ridiculously, his lips wet and swollen. The pout disappeared when she hooked a leg over his back and slowly pulled him towards her, feeling his hardness press against her. She slid her leg down to rest just below his as,, slowly guiding him to her entrance. They were both breathing heavily now, locked in each other’s eyes, as if afraid to miss something, anything about his moment.

He pushed inside her in one smooth movement and she felt her eyes widen while his fluttered as he exhaled jaggedly. For an eternal moment they were still, savouring the sudden, profound _closeness._

“I- you-” He managed breathlessly, before she smothered his lips with hers, canting her hips to take him deeper. The spell was broken, and they moved together, Fiona arcing her back to meet his movements. The pressure intensified with every second, her awareness narrowed to the point that all that existed was their two bodies, moving together in an exquisite rhythm, creating such intense pleasure that she thought she would come apart at the seams. Her nails dug into his neck and shoulder and she screamed as the tension finally snapped within her.

“O-Oh God- Fuck-”

“Fi-”

“RHYS!”

She screamed, and felt every muscle tighten in ecstasy, and by the time she came back to her senses, Rhys was moving with such urgency, she could feel the swirl of pleasure awaken again in her gut. His thrusts became harder, his metal hand gripping her hip hard enough to hurt. Distantly, she noticed that this somehow made it even _hotter_. He was consuming her with such passion that all her thought processes ground to a halt and she just held on for dear life, riding the aftershocks of her own climax until his movement stiffened, breathing hard and uneven.

 “Fuck- Fi!”

“Yes!”

“Fi-”

And then it was all shivering groans, sharp breaths and whispered names.

They collapsed together, falling bonelessly into the couch. Rhys was still whispering her name, as if in a trance, and she kissed, feather light over his collar bone and his jaw.

She looked up at him. The expression on his face was of unfettered bliss as he gazed at her fuzzily. She grinned back at him, unable to do or think anything else.

They lay like that for- she didn’t know how long, grinning like fools in each other’s arms. Fiona traced the lines of his tattoos with a lazy finger, delighting in the slight shudder that followed. As she felt herself drifting off to a contented sleep, she thought that whatever bullshit smugness they would inevitably endure over this, it might just be worth it.

“Yup,” she said sleepily, “Definitely should have been doing this the whole time.”

“Definitely.”


End file.
